MTC: Week 1

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!! Thank you SO MUCH for the letters!!! Getting them almost every day has been such a blessing!!! Please keep using Dear Elder until I get out in the field :) And thank you so much for your prayers. I know that your prayers have made it so I haven't even really been homesick...don't get me wrong, I miss you all terribly, but I am not sad at all. There is too much to learn and do.

Ok, so the first day was so crazy and long...let's be honest, the first FEW days were crazy and long. Now that we are on more of a consistent schedule, the days are flying. The cute little red head who met us at the car was so helpful in getting me all my stuff and showing me where everything was. So I don't know where everything is still haha, but my companions do so we get around just fine. :)

 

 

After we were given our badges, a huge bag of books, and put my bags in the room, I met my first companion who was supposed to be my only companion. She is ADORABLE, Hermana Thompson (the blonde)...from Star Valley, Wyoming, 19 years old (almost 20), and went to BYU I. She likes to be active, so we have had some good gym days already. After we met, we went to our classroom and found out that we were going to be put in a trio :) At first I was pretty nervous about this, because three girls getting along is sometimes more difficult than two. I have been so surprised at how easy it has been for us this week. It is harder to get places, because it takes longer for three girls to be ready, but when we teach our pretend investigators, it is nice to have two people to bounce ideas off of. We all definitely have different strengths. Hermana Rackham is from Wisconson, is 19, and is extremely smart. She loves to sing, so we have fun harmonizing as we are walking to class or in the bathroom haha. We go to the bathroom ALL the time. Girls already go to the bathroom a ton and because there are three of us and we have to be together ALL the time, we are ALWAYS going to the bathroom (plus the MTC food has been making everyone sick if you know what I mean).

 

 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my teacher. She is 24 years old, served a mission in California speaking Spanish, and is just the cutest short thing ever. I am sending a pic of us. I will try and get another one. She is seriously such a good teacher. We don't spend a ton of time practicing Spanish, but we spend a lot of time talking about how to become better teachers. My Spanish has improved a TON since I have been here. We have our trio of girls, a set of boys from Utah, and then a trio of boys in our district. They are all pretty darn funny but very young sometimes. They get restless when we are in our classroom for a lot of the day.

 

 

Oh yeah, by the way, haven't even had a hard time getting up in the morning and have pretty much fallen asleep right at 10:30 every night (only needed Tylenol PM two nights haha). The second day we were here, I was in the HUGE cafeteria and this boy almost ran into me and then he said "I'm gonna choose the right..." and then he went to the right...oh jeez...We (Mormons) are pretty weird sometimes, but pretty funny too :) Our room is TINY. It should only have four girls, but we have six in there. And it is always a race to the bathroom to take a shower. Mom, you would be so proud of me. I have gotten "cute" every day ;) As in, I had clean hair and make up on haha. So we teach fake investigators as practice at the MTC. The cool thing is, though, that these investigators are really teachers, but they come up with these personalities and stick with them. Our investigator, David, hasn't spoken English to us once. It is a blast though, teaching. And Spanish is becoming pretty comfortable for me. We pray all the time in Spanish.

 

 

This tree smells just like cream soda!  It's crazy!

 

 

We didn't have gym time for FOUR DAYS!!!! We were dying...plus my companions wanted to go outside for gym, so I didn't get to play ball for a LONG time. When I finally did, the first day I had to have one of the girls working at the gym play with me so I was able to actually play (because of the girls only guarding girls rule). I LOVE gym time. I have been playing some good basketball, and ALL the boys call me "baller" in Spanish :) There are records at the MTC for like how many 3s in a row and free throws in a row. I am GOING to break one of those records. The record for 3s is 14 or something and I know I can do that. I have been shooting better than ever. Anyway, we always look forward to gym time and now there is this adorable girl from Tonga who plays with me now :) She has never played, but she is DANG athletic. She rebounds like crazy, but has the weirdest shot haha...enough about basketball!

 

We had the BEST devotional on last Sunday...it was Chad Lewis...Dad you might know him. He used to play football for the Eagles. I can not even begin to tell you how recharging that devotional was. He just told me exactly what I needed to hear. Then our devotional on Tuesday was a guy from the seventies who was or is a mission president in Paraguay now :) He was pretty good, not as inspiring as the Chad Lewis guy, but he had a sweet message. We did service on Monday morning and we had to clean the bathrooms...boy was that gross. Girls are just disgusting, but it was nice to do something other than studying. It gets very tiring.

 

So since the food has made us so sick (me especially), we have certain things we feel like we can eat including the all you can eat cold cereal all the time, salads, and fruit. Well yesterday Hermana Rackham found a fly in her salad...I guess nothing is safe anymore haha :)

 

 

I know that even though I don't know EVERYTHING about the gospel, the people I teach can still become truly converted as I do everything I am supposed to :) I am just so grateful to be here...thank you all for making this possible. I love you all so stinking much.

MOMMY, Happy Mother's Day...I am so sad I can't call you on that day :( but love you so much!!!!! You have been the PERFECT example of how I want to be. You all are my motivation when I get tired.

Love you all!!!!!!! My P day is every Thursday morning...if you are online, we can email back and fourth like chatting!!!